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The Shock Heard Round the World

In The Conversation, David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns every Wednesday.

Marwan Naamani/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIsrael’s attack on the flotilla headed to Gaza captured the news media’s attention. But what about Al and Tipper Gore?

David Brooks: Gail, I’m going to get to Tipper and Al in a moment, but first let me ask you a question: Is there an international epidemic of stupidity going on, perhaps caused by sunspots or something?

Gail Collins: You’re just holding out that little Tipper-Al tidbit to get me to pay attention to something serious, aren’t you? Am I really that shallow?

David Brooks: We’ve seen plenty of stupidity in these parts lately, but now the course of idiocy seems to have migrated eastward to Israel, where a raid on a flotilla of ships trying to carry humanitarian aid into Gaza turned into a botched operation that ended in the deaths of 9 civilians and international condemnation.

Now I perfectly well understand the Israeli objection to the shipments. Gaza is in the control of a group of proto-genocidal fanatics. Israel offered to transfer the humanitarian supplies on those ships if it could check them for weapons first. The so-called humanitarians on those ships were closely tied to Hamas and other extremist groups.

Ariel Schalit/Associated PressThe Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of a flotilla headed to Gaza, which was raided by the Israeli navy.

The Israelis were clearly not going onto those ships with violence on their minds. The extremists on the boats started beating them and then threw a soldier over the railings. The international community is indulging in the usual double standards when condemning Israel. The world delights in being outraged by Israeli actions but somehow is slow to anger at Arab state supported terror.

And yet having said all that, how on earth could the Israelis have been so stupid? How could they have had such bad intelligence about the sorts of thugs on the boats? How could they not understand the international reaction that would come? How could they let themselves fall into precisely the trap the flotilla activists were hoping for? How could they not have seen the stupidity of assaulting those ships in open waters, especially given the British assaults on Zionist ships after the Holocaust?

Gail Collins: This looked like it was put together by the very same people who gave us the last invasion of Lebanon.

David Brooks: Ari Shavit of Ha’aretz put it best. This was an operation that a 6-year-old could have planned. Isn’t Ehud Barak supposed to be a genius? Isn’t there some accumulated wisdom within the IDF high command?

Gail Collins: Let me posit a theory: whenever you’ve got a government whose leaders are obsessed with not looking wimpy, terrible mistakes will be made. Your president might even wind up invading the wrong country.

David Brooks: The first rule of politics is, “Don’t be a jerk.” This operation makes the Israeli government look like a bunch of jerks, and stupid ones at that. The entire country is embarrassed and downhearted.

Now onto the real news of the day. The Tipper and Al break-up. Everyone is saying how sad it is, and the break-up of any marriage is sad. But I confess I’m not as overcome as others seem to be.

Gail Collins: I think the nation as a whole is thinking that if Al and Tipper split after 40 years, no marriage is ever safe. And the fact that Hillary and Bill outlasted them means that we’ve been lied to by a generation’s worth of Lifetime movies.

David Brooks: Both Tipper and Al seem to want this. They seem to have made the decision after mature consultation. Maybe they’ll both be happier now. And after all, the kids are grown.

Gail Collins: Maybe their kids have grown, but what about us? We liked having Al and Tipper walking hand in hand into the sunset. Couldn’t they have just pretended for our sakes? Their houses have gotten so big that they could probably go for months without running into one another.

David Brooks: I can’t get over the fact that I have always found Al Gore less than delightful. People say he is witty in private, but I have certainly not seen any public evidence of that. He was famously solitary in the Senate, and he gave one of the most downbeat commencement addresses of all time this year at Tennessee.

ReutersAl and Tipper Gore kissed at the 2000 Democratic Convention.

Plus, I always hated that kiss.

Is this unworthy of me?

Gail Collins: I’ve always thought of Al Gore as a guy who isn’t very comfortable in his own skin. He always seemed self-conscious, even during The Kiss. The thing I found endearing about him was that the only time he really seemed at ease was when he was giving one of his wonky global warming speeches. Also, I always liked the fact that he didn’t have any money. Which he now seems to have gotten over. I wonder if there’s a connection?